Worst stuck

[4xFar Adventures]

This isn't my worst stuck, but it was my first big one. This was about 8 years ago, back when we actually got rain in CA. After a lot of digging, a quick tug from behind got me free. Good times!

View attachment 6521 View attachment 6522

 

[MarkW]

My friend and I were up in New Hampshire on a two week excursion in our rigs. The trail had a deep trench running through it. On the left side of the trail was a small pond that had a steep drop off, the right side was a 50 foot drop. The trench appeared to be caused by the pond draining down the hill so it made this section very narrow to cross. I spotted my friends xterra across without a problem. We knew my vehicle was going to cause more problems because it is a little wider than his. He spotted my front tires across and said my back end was good. I slowly crept forward and BOOM! He was wrong and the right rear tire decided to take a scenic route into the collapsed part of the trench. This caused my truck to be resting on the rear portion of the frame.

All looks fine on the drivers side.

About that... This was before my lockers and transfer case upgrade, but I still don't believe they would have helped because the front end was barely touching the ground. It took about 15 minutes to pull my truck out of the precarious position. Needless to say, I never fully trusted his spotting the rest of the trip.


Sent from my iPhone using Overland Bound Talk

I think the lockers could have made the difference but had to say not being there and knowing as you mentioned how much weight was on the front tires. Looks like the big problem was those huge from leaf spring hangers. Couldn't tell you how many times I have got those hung up on something. Getting ready to cut them off mine and install some new shorter ones for better clearance.

 

[Daniel Etter]

@MarkW the leaf spring hangers definitely get in the way. I still need to get the skids for the shock mount to help but changing the hanger would be more beneficial. Interested to see how your modification goes!

 

[MarkW]

@Daniel Etter I have no idea why they went so big with those. I am doing a spring over in the rear and that's when I will change out the hangers. Will post in my build thread when I do. I have the Tomp low profile shock mounts and have been very happy with them.

 

[boehml]

So it wasn't me, but a Subaru Outback had gotten stuck in an absolute monster of a mud pit around midnight. We spotted his taillights from about a half mile away and decided to give him a hand. This guy's outback was dug down past his front bumper in thick stuff, needless to say his lady friend was pissed right off. Unfortunately for this fellow, the only way to give him a pull was to the side (as all other directions had gotten me stuck). Even more unfortunate for this guy was that there was a downed tree directly in that path. He didn't seem to care and basically told me to give er', so I did. This guy's outback basically slid across a 10' tree on his frame until we finally got him out. He also lost his rear bumper in the process, but was happy to be unstuck seeing as there was no one around and he was on hands and knees digging with his hands.

Just goes to show, also go prepared.

 

[MtnManT4R]

My first outing after installing my lift and i managed to high centered. Till this point I had never been stuck before ( unless you count a fire truck sliding off and icy road due to the tire chains getting stuck). I dug for about 30 minutes under the frame till a group of 3 hummers rolled up and tugged me out

 

[Fatsquatch]

My worst stuck was when I got my old Monty SR all kinds of buried. Took an AC D21 to pull her out.

 

[benzfanatical]

Big fat pig in the mud...

 

[RiverCityDave]

My first outing after installing my lift and i managed to high centered. Till this point I had never been stuck before ( unless you count a fire truck sliding off and icy road due to the tire chains getting stuck). I dug for about 30 minutes under the frame till a group of 3 hummers rolled up and tugged me out

Oh the shame. The shame of being in a 4Runner recovered by Hummers. How do you live with yourself??

:)

 

[MtnManT4R]

Oh the shame. The shame of being in a 4Runner recovered by Hummers. How do you live with yourself??

:)

At least it wasn't jeep lol.
My 10 year old nephew was with me. He asked me

"Mountain Man, what's better, a jeep or a 4runner?"
I of course told him a 4runner. He then asked me,
"Well... what's better a 4Runner or a hummer?"
"An OG Hummer like that? A Hummer!"

 

[sapietrzak]

Wasn't horrible but with open diffs and slick mud it turned into some fun.

 

[IronPercheron]

I guess this counts as being stuck. My friends and I went to do a little night wheeling and on our way back I was going to bash through a big puddle on the side of the road. Didn't realize that there was a second smaller deeper puddle after it and when I hit it at 10mph+ it sheered the upper ball joint, severed the brake line, bent the tie rod and tore the CV axle apart. Definitely should have gotten out to take a look but hindsight is 20/20. This was due to the ball joint being maxed out because they guy I bought the truck from thought it would be a good idea to have the Bilsteins set at 2.8 and then add another 1.5" spacer on top without a diff drop and on OEM control arms. This actually ended up happening on the passenger side too while I was driving down the road. Needless to say, the suspension has been fixed since then but I still live in fear that it will happen again. Also, don't let the smile fool you, I was pissed and ended up paying a little over $2,000 to fix it
View attachment 6515

Here's the second time
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Damn.

 

[Winterpeg]

^Ouch!
Looks like your passenger side tires found a little hole at the wrong time...

 

[MtnManT4R]

Most memorable "stuck"

View attachment 7636

That could have been a whole lot worse.

 

[Rogue Beardsman]

A few years ago, A Buddy and I went to an old town site on the Paria River in Southern Utah. On the way back we decided to take an old route back to town. It looked like an wagon trail more than a road, but i had driven it before and knew where it connected to better roads. Parts of the road had washed out since the first time i was on it and we ended up driving into a washed out crack and sinking to the frame in the soft crumbling dirt. We didn't panic. We realized we were stuck and came up with a plan. It was about 9:00AM Temperature was over 100 and we had plenty of supplies and water but no cell service. I had a deal with a coworker that if they didn't see me by 1:00 PM on thursday that something was wrong and where I was going. However it was only Tuesday morning.We gave ourselves 4 hours to see if we could dig out or recover somehow. We took turns shoveling out with one of those cheap folding shovels and wedging the floor mats under tires and whatever else we could come up with. One of us dug while the other rested in any shade we could make and lots of water. Four hours came and we were not making progress. We packed up some packs with food and gear and decided to bushwack to the nearest populated road which would have been shorter than following roads that are rarely used. We estimated about a 10 mile hike. We started off and made it about 20 feet and i decided to run back to the car and leave a note. On the hood I wrote"stuck went for help" and an arrow and when I turned to start walking back I see something shiny on back down the road. It ended up being a BLM truck and the guy guy helped pull me out. We were saved!. He told us he only drives that road once a month and has never seen anyone else on it and it was our lucky day.

I learned a lot that day and have acted accordingly learning new techniques and getting some important equipment. A real Shovel, CB/Other radios and also leaving more specific travel/ check in plans.
The thing I learned most is not to panic and work the problem

 

[scubasteve2002]

The worst I got stuck was bottoming out my Subaru hahaha took 700lbs of men in my trunk to get me unstuck hahaha [emoji23]

 

[expeditionnorth]

2 springs ago my son got his girlfriends father jeep patriot stuck out near otter creek, the next morning where it located was under a foot of flood water from the snow melt
I almost got stuck trying to rescue him
it doesnt look like much, but with the melt the rigs were sinking into the farm land
if only he would have me put my winch on the week before we could have pulled him free
Mikie's Jeep Wheeling Fail

instead a friend with a mud bog truck pulled him free for $120

 

[TreXTerra]

A few years ago, A Buddy and I went to an old town site on the Paria River in Southern Utah. On the way back we decided to take an old route back to town. It looked like an wagon trail more than a road, but i had driven it before and knew where it connected to better roads. Parts of the road had washed out since the first time i was on it and we ended up driving into a washed out crack and sinking to the frame in the soft crumbling dirt. We didn't panic. We realized we were stuck and came up with a plan. It was about 9:00AM Temperature was over 100 and we had plenty of supplies and water but no cell service. I had a deal with a coworker that if they didn't see me by 1:00 PM on thursday that something was wrong and where I was going. However it was only Tuesday morning.We gave ourselves 4 hours to see if we could dig out or recover somehow. We took turns shoveling out with one of those cheap folding shovels and wedging the floor mats under tires and whatever else we could come up with. One of us dug while the other rested in any shade we could make and lots of water. Four hours came and we were not making progress. We packed up some packs with food and gear and decided to bushwack to the nearest populated road which would have been shorter than following roads that are rarely used. We estimated about a 10 mile hike. We started off and made it about 20 feet and i decided to run back to the car and leave a note. On the hood I wrote"stuck went for help" and an arrow and when I turned to start walking back I see something shiny on back down the road. It ended up being a BLM truck and the guy guy helped pull me out. We were saved!. He told us he only drives that road once a month and has never seen anyone else on it and it was our lucky day.

I learned a lot that day and have acted accordingly learning new techniques and getting some important equipment. A real Shovel, CB/Other radios and also leaving more specific travel/ check in plans.
The thing I learned most is not to panic and work the problem

A CB might have helped, but a ham radio would be able to reach out much father and you can use repeaters to get your signal to the other side of a mountain. It sounds like what you needed was a high-lift jack to lift the vehicle up so you could fill the hole.

We had a 4Runner high-centered on a big rock a few years ago. The driver had never been stuck before and was kind of freaked out. Instead of yanking it off the rock and damaging something, we used a jack-mate to lift each tire and stack rocks under it. When we were done, the rig was 1" off the rock and we simply backed up. No damage done to the rig and a nice low-speed low-energy recovery.

 

[wolf69]

Buried a M1A2 up to the deck, it took 2 recovery tracks and a back hoe to dig us out.

 

[TreXTerra]

Buried a M1A2 up to the deck, it took 2 recovery tracks and a back hoe to dig us out.

Ok, we have a new high-score.